Who reading this is amazed by a piece of dirt? A plain old piece of dirt that you find in your backyard after trying to rehabilitate some plants.
Anyone?
No?
I didn't think so.
This is an example of what I call the "boredom effect," though I’m sure there is another name for it. The Boredom Effect is simple: if someone encounters an object or situation long enough and repeatedly, no matter how exotic or strange as it may seem, it will become normal and stop being incredible. An example of the boredom effect happens to most of us living in Hawaii. Hawaii is a paradise, however, many of us don’t enjoy its beauty all the time. Frequently we ignore the fact that we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Instead, we watch TV, surf the net and talk on cell phones to our friends about who did what to who where under what circumstances. We don’t look at the rainbows, or at the mountains in our free time. Instead, most teens who live in Hawaii hang out in the mall or work on homework, and when we do enjoy our island’s beauty, it is only when a rainbow appears or when we look at sunsets for a few minutes. It is the tourists who enjoy the beauty because they have less experience encountering the views of these islands.
In short: we should sometimes look at our everyday lives from the eyes of a stranger who has never experienced it. Paradise is wasted on those who live there. Unless they look harder and see the true beauty of the everyday. Perhaps we can even see beauty in a piece of dirt.
(note: deleted. Check history for old version)
A: I see... Speaking of robots, I noticed on your blog that you mention about a robotics competition you are participating in.
D: Ah, yes. I am currently in Punahou’s FIRST (For Inspiration Research Science and Technology) competition team, PETT (Punahou Electronics and Technology Team). We have currently finished packing up the robot and shipped it off to Las Vegas where we will compete.
A: Ah! Very nice. What do you do for that?
D: I feel like I have explained FIRST for one too many English assignments, but I’ll tell you. I am working on the Computer Aided Design, or CAD, for the robot. My main job is to make three-dimensional designs covering everything physical about the robot from the electronics boards to the frame.
A: Sounds hard.
D: It takes time, but once you understand how to use the program it is easy. It took me some time to realize how to put the frame together using the extruded aluminum because parts wouldn’t match up correctly. I had to restart a few times.
A: Well, good luck with that. I noticed that you posted a number of ideas on your website. Where do you get them?
D: I really don’t know. All I know is that I am usually not inspired by events occurring to me in real time. I am not inspired in the same way as many people say they do by looking at something. Usually my ideas are created by chance. My mind wanders and it sometimes puts two seemingly unrelated subjects together to create an idea. One of the ideas that I created this way was the “God pen”.
A: Ah, yes. I remember reading about that in your blog. How did you think of it again?
D: I had the idea from thinking about the iPod Nano commercials. You know, the ones where the people waved the iPods and a trail of light followed it? I crossed that idea with painting. This created the idea of the god pen, being that with this device you could create solid objects. The only limit is your imagination and the only control over it is the user.
A: Interesting… So, what are you going to do to the blog now?
D: For starters, keep up with posts. In the beginning I didn’t realize that we had to post at least one post per class. I need to catch up because of this, as you can see.
A: Yeah. Anything else?
D: I had this one idea that I haven’t posted on the blog, due to revising and rethinking, and that was to make a fake blog.
A: A fake blog? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
D: Maybe. The main idea is to create a character who seems to be real. I am kind of taking the idea from the YouTube video series created by “lonelygirl15” who turned out to be fake… But not in a scam artist kind of way. I want to try to see if I can make a believable character for a story.
(note: deleted. Check history for old version)
Boredom Effect
Who reading this is amazed by a piece of dirt? A plain old piece of dirt that you find in your backyard after trying to rehabilitate some plants.
Anyone?
No?
I didn't think so.
This is an example of what I call the "boredom effect," though I’m sure there is another name for it. The Boredom Effect is simple: if someone encounters an object or situation long enough and repeatedly, no matter how exotic or strange as it may seem, it will become normal and stop being incredible. An example of the boredom effect happens to most of us living in Hawaii. Hawaii is a paradise, however, many of us don’t enjoy its beauty all the time. Frequently we ignore the fact that we live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Instead, we watch TV, surf the net and talk on cell phones to our friends about who did what to who where under what circumstances. We don’t look at the rainbows, or at the mountains in our free time. Instead, most teens who live in Hawaii hang out in the mall or work on homework, and when we do enjoy our island’s beauty, it is only when a rainbow appears or when we look at sunsets for a few minutes. It is the tourists who enjoy the beauty because they have less experience encountering the views of these islands.
In short: we should sometimes look at our everyday lives from the eyes of a stranger who has never experienced it. Paradise is wasted on those who live there. Unless they look harder and see the true beauty of the everyday. Perhaps we can even see beauty in a piece of dirt.
Posted by Dee Mosher at 11:34 PM comments
Labels: Ideas
Common Place Blog Interview
(note: deleted. Check history for old version)
A: I see... Speaking of robots, I noticed on your blog that you mention about a robotics competition you are participating in.
D: Ah, yes. I am currently in Punahou’s FIRST (For Inspiration Research Science and Technology) competition team, PETT (Punahou Electronics and Technology Team). We have currently finished packing up the robot and shipped it off to Las Vegas where we will compete.
A: Ah! Very nice. What do you do for that?
D: I feel like I have explained FIRST for one too many English assignments, but I’ll tell you. I am working on the Computer Aided Design, or CAD, for the robot. My main job is to make three-dimensional designs covering everything physical about the robot from the electronics boards to the frame.
A: Sounds hard.
D: It takes time, but once you understand how to use the program it is easy. It took me some time to realize how to put the frame together using the extruded aluminum because parts wouldn’t match up correctly. I had to restart a few times.
A: Well, good luck with that. I noticed that you posted a number of ideas on your website. Where do you get them?
D: I really don’t know. All I know is that I am usually not inspired by events occurring to me in real time. I am not inspired in the same way as many people say they do by looking at something. Usually my ideas are created by chance. My mind wanders and it sometimes puts two seemingly unrelated subjects together to create an idea. One of the ideas that I created this way was the “God pen”.
A: Ah, yes. I remember reading about that in your blog. How did you think of it again?
D: I had the idea from thinking about the iPod Nano commercials. You know, the ones where the people waved the iPods and a trail of light followed it? I crossed that idea with painting. This created the idea of the god pen, being that with this device you could create solid objects. The only limit is your imagination and the only control over it is the user.
A: Interesting… So, what are you going to do to the blog now?
D: For starters, keep up with posts. In the beginning I didn’t realize that we had to post at least one post per class. I need to catch up because of this, as you can see.
A: Yeah. Anything else?
D: I had this one idea that I haven’t posted on the blog, due to revising and rethinking, and that was to make a fake blog.
A: A fake blog? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
D: Maybe. The main idea is to create a character who seems to be real. I am kind of taking the idea from the YouTube video series created by “lonelygirl15” who turned out to be fake… But not in a scam artist kind of way. I want to try to see if I can make a believable character for a story.
(note: deleted. Check history for old version)